“What about him? He’s not much older than Mr. Rafael himself.”
“That’s Willard Phule,” Laverna said. “Probably the youngest megamillionaire in the galaxy. You may not know it, but he’s a bit of a legend in financial circles-a real tiger when it comes to corporate infighting and takeovers.”
“How very interesting,” Maxine said, studying the figure with a new respect. “Forgive me, Laverna, but I’m still tired and sleepy, and my mind is a little slow right now. What is it exactly that you’re trying to tell me here?”
Now it was Laverna’s turn to shrug.
“To me, this changes the game,” she said. “Whether he knows it or not, Rafael just hired himself some real heavyweight help. I thought you might want to reconsider your whole idea of taking over the casino.”
While Maxine might give the appearance of being someone’s grandmother or, perhaps, a maiden aunt, this impression couldn’t be further from the truth. Locally she was known simply as “Max” or “the Max.” She had married into organized crime while still young, and surprised everyone by successfully stepping into her late husband’s shoes after his untimely demise during a shoot-out with unsympathetic authorities. She had sold off most of the “business interests” her husband had maintained, focusing her entire energies and resources on one specialty-casinos.
Max liked casinos, officially because of their money-laundering capacity, which earned her a steady income providing that service for other crime families, but, in actuality, because she liked the glittery life-style that prevailed at those establishments. She was a common fixture at the tables around Lorelei, though she rarely placed a bet for more than the table minimum. The tourists who gambled beside her never realized that she held controlling interest in nearly every casino on the space station, but the permanent residents knew who she was and treated her with appropriate deference.